What ‘Shogun’ Can Teach Our Troubled World
What ‘Shogun’ Can Teach Our Troubled World
The TV miniseries set in feudal Japan shows that when social order dissolves, it can only be restored at great human cost.
Forty-four years after the groundbreaking television miniseries “Shogun” first aired, a new version from FX may be the most visually accurate depiction of Japan ever put on screen. It is gritty and dark, far more than its legendary predecessor. This is no Japan of soft breezes, blue skies and exotic maidens. Showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, along with producer and star Hiroyuki Sanada, have recreated an exhausted, blood-soaked land at the brutal climax of its century of civil war. Based on James Clavell’s bestselling 1975 novel, this is a “Shogun” for the 17th century as well as the 21st.
“Shogun” is the fictional story of the greatest era in Japanese history: the triumph of the Tokugawa clan and the establishment of the two-and-a-half centuries of peace during the Edo period. The central figure in Clavell’s novel, John Blackthorne, is based on the real-world William Adams, a British navigator on a Dutch raiding-and-trading vessel who washed up on Japan’s shores in 1600. That was the moment when Ieyasu Tokugawa was preparing to vie for total supremacy in Japan. He was the last of the three great unifiers of early-modern Japan, succeeding the “Taiko,” Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and the ruthless Nobunaga Oda, who was assassinated in 1582. Tokugawa became the “shogun” (literally, “barbarian-quelling generalissimo”), and his heirs ruled until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
In some ways, this production of “Shogun” comes at the wrong time for Western viewers. It depicts the final, all-out battle to end the chaos that had enveloped Japan for 150 years and to create a new and durable political system. Our worry today, by contrast, is the advent of chaos, with many fearing the possible collapse of the post-World War II international order.
The wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, the threatening growth of China’s military power, nuclear proliferation, the endless scourge of terrorism, and domestic unrest in the U.S. and Europe seem to herald a new time of troubles, an era of instability and upheaval. “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” seems more appropriate to our moment than events on the fields of Sekigahara that were about to end generations of war and launch Japan on an unparalleled period of peace and prosperity.
Even so, this new version of “Shogun” has much to teach us: the wiles and art needed to survive in the midst of upheaval, the realities of geopolitics, the lurking danger of betrayal and the inestimable advantage of advanced technology. All of these factors were in play in Japan’s civil war of this era, and all play a role in our own uncertain world, as we face growing threats.
The best way to understand the Japan of “Shogun” is to think of it as a mini-international system. The feudal domains were like autonomous nations, fighting each other from the late-1460s through 1600 for survival and power. Success depended on learning key lessons that remain relevant today.
In a land consumed by warfare, each daimyo, or feudal lord, knew that internal instability would threaten the survival of his domain. One way to help maintain stability was to create a thriving economy by reducing barriers to trade and attracting the finest artisan talent, while avoiding waste and profligacy.
Economic surplus was used to build massive defense establishments, including the greatest castles the world has ever seen and armies of samurai—warriors adept with sword, bow and pike, on horse or foot. Warfare was a combination of mass maneuver and logistics combined with archaic notions of personal honor and disgrace. The wise daimyo ensured that his forces were absolutely loyal; losing the samurai’s devotion could bring defeat in battle.
Above all, self-delusion could be fatal. A daimyo knew never to take any promise at face value, especially by adversaries pretending to be friends. Alliances were often necessary, but treachery was ever-present, so both sides’ interests had to be bound together, often by the exchange of hostages. A daimyo always remembered that his ultimate goal was ensuring his domain’s survival, through unity, strength and the judicious use of force.
These lessons and more are brought to the fore in the new production of “Shogun,” which (unlike its predecessor) focuses more on the politics of Japan than on the cultural failings of the Englishman Blackthorne. At its center is the Lord Toranaga (the fictional Tokugawa), played in 1980 by the great Toshiro Mifune and now powerfully brought to life by Hiroyuki Sanada. Sanada’s Toranga is the epitome of the cunning, experience and calm that only the greatest leaders possess in times of crisis.
Equally deft is Anna Sawai’s portrayal of Lady Mariko Toda, the Catholic aristocrat, interpreter and eventually lover of Blackthorne. Her tightrope balance between her religion and her loyalty to Toranaga is a psychological case study in political survival, as well as the crucially underappreciated role of the Japanese woman inside the castle precincts.
As for Blackthorne, memorably acted by Richard Chamberlain in the television series, he is subtly diminished in this retelling. Yet when events suddenly turn deadly, as they do repeatedly without warning, Blackthorne, played by Cosmo Jarvis (with a voice uncannily like that of Richard Burton), shows that a man can rely only on his own fortitude to survive, and the rest is up to fate.
Darkness suffuses this modern version of Shogun, refusing to candy-coat the reality that once order is lost, society cannot repurchase it without great cost. Individuals become pawns, and injustice is done in the name of greater justice, often in ways that may shock Western sensibilities.
After the original “Shogun” set off a boom in all things Japanese, American businessmen in the 1980s began learning the secrets of the samurai to try to understand Japan’s economic success. In the 2020s, American leaders may turn to the era of Japan’s civil wars to learn lessons on how to compete and survive in a world turned upside down.
Michael Auslin is the Payson J. Treat Distinguished Research Fellow in Contemporary Asia at the Hoover Institution and taught Japanese history at Yale.
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Appeared in the March 9, 2024, print edition as 'What ‘Shogun’ Can Teach Our Troubled World'.